The new cruise liner of the Meyer Werft, the Ovation of the Seas, will be leaving Bremerhaven for Hamburg on Friday evening, where it will arrive midday on Saturday for a further visit to the Blohm & Voss dockyard.

Over the last few days, the Ovation of the Seas has gone through numerous technical and nautical tests, putting the systems and technical machinery through their paces under extremely adverse conditions. The sound and vibration measurements were also completed, together with the speed tests.

Following this second trial voyage, the decision was taken to replace the drive propellers. For this third ship in the series, a new design had been developed to achieve further improvements in fuel consumption. It now transpires that this effect won’t be achieved so that the shipyard and owners are reverting to the established design: the original propellers will now be fitted while the ship is in dock in Hamburg. The crew and shipyard staff then return to Bremerhaven for a very brief layover before handing the ship over to the owners.

Plans are still in place to proceed with the handover to Royal Caribbean International ahead of schedule on 8 April 2016.